peanut
Active member
Well heres a salutary tale .
I needed to drive 30 miles to Bridgwater yesterday to make a vitally important meeting .
Half the journey was on the M5 between junctions 25 Taunton and J24 Bridgwater.
After an uneventful but incredibly slow 15 mile drive from my home to the M5 behind a tractor at 30mph I was running late and feeling like a cork in a bottle ready to explode.
With a huge white Audi right on my bumper and all intentions of driving carefully now forgotten , I charged round the roundabout and accelerated hard up the short slip road at Taunton onto the M5 . As I crossed lanes onto the M5 I was already hitting 60mph+ and out of the blue there was an almighty thump and bang as if I had driven over something on the road.
Immediately the engine cut out dead and the car started to slow down. I desperately tried to restart by dropping the clutch but nothing doing. Not a cough or splutter or backfire. oh no no NO not now!
As the car continued to slow I pulled onto the emergency access lane with my mind racing and panic rapidly setting in.
I was going to miss that vitally important meeting , I had no get- me- home AA cover , my disabled demented Father back at home would now be left without care cover, I had nobody I could call for help and I had absolutely no tools on me .....
Its extraordinary how we take things for granted and how your whole World can then suddenly fall apart and descend into chaos isn't it.
I had a last minute panic deciding whether or not to steer the nearside wheels onto the gravel runoff and risk getting stuck or whether to stay on the emergency lane and risk getting steam rollered by one of the huge trucks that were passing inches from my drivers door. I chose the former.
I sat for a few moments running over my limited options and trying to make sense of what had just happened. I tried to restart the car but the the engine was just turning over and it was pointless running the battery down as that would leave me no options. Oddly I noticed that every time I turned the ignition on, the tacho needle flicked right around the dial to the red and then back again ?? presumably some kind of error indication but aside from possibly the CPS sensor I had no idea what it indicated .
Had the cam belt snapped ? unlikely.... I reasoned that with the engine still being turned over when I dropped the clutch for attempted bump starts I would have heard the pistons smashing into the valves . What else ? not fuel flow or the engine would have coughed and spluttered and possibly back fired before quitting. Electrical ? possibly HT probably .... the engine had suddenly cut out dead so maybe something had come adrift like the coil lead
I pulled myself together and realised I needed to at least do a visual check of the engine . it was several minutes before a short lull in the traffic allowed me to open my door and run round the front of the car. The noise was incredible. Huge lorries roaring past barely 2x foot from the side of the car, the wind slamming into me and rocking the car.
I manage to get the bonnet up and quickly run through all the obvious stuff....cam belt... fuel leaks... loose electrical connections .....coil lead . I check the CPS connector and wiggle the wiring thats ok. In desperation I pull the fuse/relay box lid and check all the fuses one by one . They are all fine. I realise that thats about as far as I can go without tools when I spotted the 3x wire DME relay bypass I always carry with me in the fuse relay box. Mmmm worth a try. I plug it in and immediately hear the reassuring sound of fuel running through the fuel rail .
Keeping everything crossed and offering a prayer or two I dodge the lorries and jump back in the car and turn the key ....vrooomm.. it starts !.... thank you god ....
I drive the rest of the journey very steadily at 50mph behind a lorry ... the shame of it ...
I can only assume that the DME relay must have somehow been impact damaged internally when I ran over whatever it was on the slip road ? I'll take it apart later and see what I see.
So the moral of this salutary tale is Always take a spare DME relay with you (better still a 3x wire bypass) and don't forget to pack a basic tool kit .
I needed to drive 30 miles to Bridgwater yesterday to make a vitally important meeting .
Half the journey was on the M5 between junctions 25 Taunton and J24 Bridgwater.
After an uneventful but incredibly slow 15 mile drive from my home to the M5 behind a tractor at 30mph I was running late and feeling like a cork in a bottle ready to explode.
With a huge white Audi right on my bumper and all intentions of driving carefully now forgotten , I charged round the roundabout and accelerated hard up the short slip road at Taunton onto the M5 . As I crossed lanes onto the M5 I was already hitting 60mph+ and out of the blue there was an almighty thump and bang as if I had driven over something on the road.
Immediately the engine cut out dead and the car started to slow down. I desperately tried to restart by dropping the clutch but nothing doing. Not a cough or splutter or backfire. oh no no NO not now!
As the car continued to slow I pulled onto the emergency access lane with my mind racing and panic rapidly setting in.
I was going to miss that vitally important meeting , I had no get- me- home AA cover , my disabled demented Father back at home would now be left without care cover, I had nobody I could call for help and I had absolutely no tools on me .....
Its extraordinary how we take things for granted and how your whole World can then suddenly fall apart and descend into chaos isn't it.
I had a last minute panic deciding whether or not to steer the nearside wheels onto the gravel runoff and risk getting stuck or whether to stay on the emergency lane and risk getting steam rollered by one of the huge trucks that were passing inches from my drivers door. I chose the former.
I sat for a few moments running over my limited options and trying to make sense of what had just happened. I tried to restart the car but the the engine was just turning over and it was pointless running the battery down as that would leave me no options. Oddly I noticed that every time I turned the ignition on, the tacho needle flicked right around the dial to the red and then back again ?? presumably some kind of error indication but aside from possibly the CPS sensor I had no idea what it indicated .
Had the cam belt snapped ? unlikely.... I reasoned that with the engine still being turned over when I dropped the clutch for attempted bump starts I would have heard the pistons smashing into the valves . What else ? not fuel flow or the engine would have coughed and spluttered and possibly back fired before quitting. Electrical ? possibly HT probably .... the engine had suddenly cut out dead so maybe something had come adrift like the coil lead
I pulled myself together and realised I needed to at least do a visual check of the engine . it was several minutes before a short lull in the traffic allowed me to open my door and run round the front of the car. The noise was incredible. Huge lorries roaring past barely 2x foot from the side of the car, the wind slamming into me and rocking the car.
I manage to get the bonnet up and quickly run through all the obvious stuff....cam belt... fuel leaks... loose electrical connections .....coil lead . I check the CPS connector and wiggle the wiring thats ok. In desperation I pull the fuse/relay box lid and check all the fuses one by one . They are all fine. I realise that thats about as far as I can go without tools when I spotted the 3x wire DME relay bypass I always carry with me in the fuse relay box. Mmmm worth a try. I plug it in and immediately hear the reassuring sound of fuel running through the fuel rail .
Keeping everything crossed and offering a prayer or two I dodge the lorries and jump back in the car and turn the key ....vrooomm.. it starts !.... thank you god ....
I drive the rest of the journey very steadily at 50mph behind a lorry ... the shame of it ...
I can only assume that the DME relay must have somehow been impact damaged internally when I ran over whatever it was on the slip road ? I'll take it apart later and see what I see.
So the moral of this salutary tale is Always take a spare DME relay with you (better still a 3x wire bypass) and don't forget to pack a basic tool kit .
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